Charges: St. Paul man used East Side house like a store to sell and stash drugs

Nick Ferraro, Pioneer Press
Updated ·2 min read

A St. Paul man is jailed and charged with possessing hundreds of pounds of marijuana, bags of psychedelic mushrooms and illegal guns at a house in the city’s Battle Creek neighborhood that prosecutors say was set up like a store for drug sales.

A 16-year law enforcement officer had never seen the quantity of marijuana that was recovered during Tuesday’s search, according to charges filed in Ramsey County District Court against Brian Terrance Krueger, 39.

The small, yellow and white rambler in the 2100 block of Bush Avenue, just west of McKnight Road, was “Krueger’s store and stash house,” the criminal complaint states. In the living room, a U-shaped glass display case presented 1-pound bags of marijuana and large bags of mushrooms and marijuana edibles. An electronic money counter was found in a bedroom.

Krueger is jailed in lieu of $1 million bail ahead of an initial appearance on the charges Friday morning.

Drugs, guns and cash

According to the criminal complaint:

Officers on Tuesday obtained a search warrant for the house after learning Krueger was allegedly growing marijuana in Michigan and selling the drug and mushrooms in Minnesota.

Officers conducted surveillance at the house and saw Krueger’s rental car there and his pickup truck parked nearby. When officers approached to execute the search warrant around 4:30 p.m., three men ran from the house and were arrested by other officers. They were identified as Krueger, his father, and a 37-year-old man who police believe was there to make a purchase “as he had over $6000 in cash on him when he was detained,” the complaint states.

The front door of the house was barricaded, and officers used a battering ram to get inside. No one else was in the house.

In the living room, bags of marijuana were piled on top of the display case and inside black storage bins. “Officers recovered hundreds of pounds, well over 50 kilograms, of cannabis flower from the store,” the complaint states. Just over $1,000 cash was also in the living room.

Four bags of mushrooms “recovered from the store” tested positive for psilocybin, an illegal hallucinogen. The bags weighed just over 2 pounds in total.

In a bedroom safe, officers found two 9mm “ghost guns” and $125,475 in cash. A loaded shotgun was also found in the bedroom.

Prosecutors charged Krueger with first-degree drug possession, first-degree sale of drugs and six illegal weapons counts.

Krueger’s criminal history includes a simple robbery conviction in 2011 and DWI convictions in 2006 and 2007.

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